


Blister

by Capeless_AntiHero (BlessedBeasts)



Series: The Chase [1]
Category: Original Work, Police - Fandom
Genre: Anger, Crime, Dark Humor, Death, Drug Use, Murder, Police, Violence, cursing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-30
Updated: 2019-04-30
Packaged: 2020-02-10 12:45:04
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,447
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18660700
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BlessedBeasts/pseuds/Capeless_AntiHero
Summary: ' Matt sighed lowly and pulled off his gloves quickly holding them out to a close lab tech to grab. Once his hands were glove free, he pulled out the notebook that Avery gave him, “Back in the early 2000s there were a string of suicides, none of the victims had anything in common aside from the fact that they all killed themselves once a medical professional attempted to draw blood. Twenty-three people ended up taking their lives before the cause of the killings were revealed. They all were infected with a drug called Blister, a street drug that was used to block pain and sold off for a new high. Everyone was infected by the same dealer, Hendrick Ryan Junior.” '





	Blister

During this time of year, the emergency room always was humid. It soaked up the water in the air every time the sliding doors opened bringing in more bodies inside the enclosed space. The constant chatter around the room and the sweat that pours off the patrons  which  alway s  cause d  a claustrophobic feel to the space. 

Doctor Jake Morgan was all too use to the sweat that clung to the back of his collars after standing in crowded room for more than a moment. He had spent much of his youth in the room, running from patient to patient as an intern and then later being in charge as he started his residency in the hospital. Tonight was not any different to any previously, he was tired, sweating through his shirt as he checked over a new victim that was rolled into the hospital on gurney. 

He took in the statues of the patient, calculating mentally his scraps and bruising, while he also focused on the real problems. The man was brought in as a motorcycle crash victim, one of the most common crashes in the city, sustaining lacerations and bruising across his body but the real worry that he had focused around the man’s head. The cuts and bruising did not resemble that from a crash and his movements seemed lethargic, as if he was on something. 

Jake frowned as he reached out and tipped the man’s head back, reached into his pocket with his free hand and pulled out a small flashlight and shined it in the man’s eyes. He frown ed harder  at the lack of reaction, there is no dilation of the pupils. The man gave no reaction as the nurses moved around him trying to get a look at the scrapes as they moved clothing and rubbed swabs against the cuts. Jake looked over to his left and caught the eye of one of his head nurses, “Get a blood test, he may be high on something that we don’t know about and until we know what, it is too dangerous to get him examined.”

She nodded her head and moved forward once he stepped back. Around them the room burst to life again as another patient was rushed in on a stretcher. He blinked slowly taking in the movement of the room and the sweat clinging to him . H e  then  reached a hand up and pulled the handkerchief he ke pt  in his pocket to wipe his face, doing his best to wipe away the liquid.

A sudden exclamation brought his attention back toward the man that rested in front of him. Though he himself had backed away a few feet the two nurses he entrusted to care for the man had moved closer, each trying to do their own job for the patient. Maria, his brain supplied her name, seemed to have been doing as he requested, drawing the patient's blood to get it sent to diagnostics for a drug analysis. She was now wrestling with the man, an image that caused Jake to rush forward getting a hand planted on  the  shoulder of the patient and using the other to grab the arm that was struggling with Maria. 

Jake was not a young man, he had been in his late thirties when he finally was accepted into his residency but that had been more than 15 years ago, he was not able to keep up the same health as he had then. He struggled with the other, around him he heard the other nurses shouting for security, or maybe it was police, he couldn’t focus on them as the man surged up again. It was unnerving when he realized that him and Maria were losing this struggle, both panting hard and hissing words of calm to the patient. The grip that Jake held on the man seemed to loosen each time the other surged up, with empty eyes and exposed teeth, deep in his mind it reminded Jake of his neighbors Doberman's who always growled at him passed their gates. 

All it took from the patient is one well-placed thrash of his leg to knock Jake off balance, causing him to release the others hand which shot out to grab the needle Maria had been struggling to keep out of reach. Once in possession of the needle the man drew his arm back and stabbed it into his own neck, causing a sudden reaction of a squirt of blood and the sound of choking. 

“No!”

Jake was quick to stumble to grab the others arm with one hand and with the other press against the bleeding wound, but he could already tell it was too late as the blood tricked through his fingers. Maria screamed as she also reached out to add her own pressure to the wound, but jump ed  back as Jake shouted, “I need something to close the wound!”

With a choked sob, Maria stumbled back from them both, the man was already falling limp from the blood lose. Jake looked up at her with panicked expression and shouted, “Move!” His voice echoing across the now silent Emergency. He frowned at her as all she could do was shake her head, hands clutched to her chest. Only later he would realize that the man was past saving, the blood that dripped between his own fingers expressing that intent without words. 

He turned back to focus on the man but as he looked at the other, he knew he had passed. The blood had stopped flowing not long after the realization, which allowed him to pull his hands back and stare down at the body. He let out a weak breath and raised his head to look at Maria and another nurse who had moved by her side, “Time of death,” he paused and flicked his eyes down to the watch on his wrist only to catch it covered in blood, unreadable under the red liquid. His stomach churned with distaste and he quickly looked to the clock above the exit, “10:03 P.M., someone call the P.D.”

With that he stepped from the body, and shaking lightly from adrenaline and panic, and turned to head toward the locker room in hopes of escaping the suddenly loud rush of voices that surrounded him. 

* * *

Across town in another hospital two more similar disturbances occurred.

 

* * *

The call had come in at 10:07 P.M., just after Matt had crawled into bed. He hated late night calls, it always meant long nights away from home and sick criminals that made his skin crawl. He moaned loudly into the edge of his pillow before reaching for his phone and swiping to accept the call, “I just fucking left the office not more than 30 minutes ago, this better be important V.”

“Just got a call from the hospital, we need you to come back in,” Victor Harkness, his partner in most cases, responded sounding just as tired as he was. 

“The hospital? What type of case do we have that would require us to go there,” he flopped over onto his side glancing at the clock that sat on his bedside table, which allowed him to focus his eyes on something besides the darkness around him.

“Dunno, I just got the call a minute ago. I am heading over to pick you up, be ready in five.”

The line went dead after that not giving Matt a chance to plead his case about staying in bed any longer. He dropped the phone on the bed next to him and grabbed the pillow from behind him and dropped it on his face then let out a yell of frustration. He finished his yell after a second and then threw the pillow against the wall and sat up to look around his room disgruntled. 

He only allowed himself a few seconds of frustration before he brought his mind into focus. He climbed out of bed quickly and rushed through his room pulling out one of his suits quickly and dressed in it taking less time than it normally does to get dressed in the morning. Once dressed he moved out of his room toward the entry way where he kicked off his shoes when he first got home. He paused on his way to the entry way and stopped in the dining area to grab his wallet from the table and with that his gun belt and badge. With great skill he tugged the belt around his waist as he moved, he crossed the thresh hold of the entry way just as the door was knocked on.

He tightened the belt ,  so it sits on his waist perfectly and the holster rests on his right hip, gun still in its holster because he had been too lazy to put it away properly, and shouted, “Come in ! ”

The door was unlocked from the outside and pushed open revealing Victor standing on the step. Victor painted an impressive figure in with his 6’ tall  and  muscular frame, there wasn’t any question about why he was handpicked for this detail. Matt smirked as he shoved his feet into the work boots, they had both adopted to start wearing after a crime scene in the bogs.

“That couldn’t have been five minutes.”

“I may have lied, got you up and moving through didn’t it?”

Matt grimaced at him. He shoved his wallet and phone into his front pocket with one hand while he reached out with his other to yank his coat from the door handle of the entry way closet. Victor just shrugged his shoulders at the grimace and stepped back as Matt stepped out. He shut the door behind him and turned his back on Victor to lock it with the keys he had grabbed from the table he left by the door to catch anything he didn’t care about car ry ing farther into the home. Once done and now facing Victor again, they shared a look and moved down toward Victors car. 

His car this time was not a patrol car, proving that he had gotten the call and then headed straight towards Matt’s home, instead parked at the end of his driveway was a sturdy grey pickup truck. It wasn’t as new of many of their co-workers but when Matt had first asked Victor shrugged and had told him that it had come from his father after he had passed away due to an unexpected heart attack. From then on Matt never commented on the older, hand-me-down items the other man possessed. They both entered the pickup after the short walk down the drive, and Victor started it and pulled back from the drive and then took off toward the Hospital. 

The drive to the hospital was silent, the only things passing between their lips were Matt’s directions on the fastest routes and Victor telling him to shut up because he knew the way. 

They pulled into the hospital parking lot, both men sucked in a shocked breath at the sight before them. The Emergency entrance was covered in police cars, around them people moved back and forth under caution tape and groups of civilians seemed to be congregating behind the marked off areas. They shared a look, one where a handful of words passed through their eyes but none through their lips, years of working together made them masters at reading each other's minds. 

The pickup was put into park and turned off and in turn they both climbed out of the cab and moved toward the caution tape. They moved together in a silent harmony, both looking professional and focused once they reached the tape. One of the police nodded to them, someone Matt knew from the force when he had worked as a beat cop. Matt and Victor ducked under the caution tape and moved toward the emergency doors, which opened automatically for them.

The first thing he had noticed once the doors were open was the smell, it wasn’t like how normal dead bodies smelled, instead it was almost like a skunk had sprayed down the whole room. He gagged suddenly reaching up to cover his mouth and pinch his nose in disgust at the smell, “What the fuck?”

Next to him he heard Victor choke in response him grabbing the corner of his jacket to cover his nose and mouth in response. In front of him a voice cackled loudly and said, “Delightful smell isn’t it?”

“Cut the crap Marsh,” Matt responded his voice muffled behind his hand as he looked toward the Chief Medical Examiner David Marsh. Marsh was crouched on the ground hovering over a body that laid on its back in the middle of a large pool of blood. He stepped forward, eyes focused on the body, “What is that smell? It’s fucking horrifying.”

Marsh smirked and said as he looked over the body, “We are assuming it’s the blood, staff said that it started to smell like this about 3 minutes after the Vic stopped breathing,” he held out a cotton swab and wiped it into the blood on the ground and pulled it up, the blood clinging to the swab following it up almost like melted cheese, “Bloods an odd texture too, got some swabs set up and sent to the lab for analysis, just waiting to hear back.”

From behind Marsh a figure approached, average build and height the women that came into view did not seem like the t ype  to be there, but Matt knew different. Avery McCullen was a spitfire woman, full of spunk and danger when it came time to doing her job as the head detective for the Police department’s homicide unit. She stopped a few paces behind Marsh, being the only one in the room seemingly unaffected by the smell as she said, “Harkness, Jones, nice of you to join us.”

Matt nodded to her respectfully before he dropped his hand putting on a brave face. He stepped closer to the body crouching down to look at the victim, “Chief. Can I ask what warrants  two homicide detectives  to look at one body?”

Avery nod ded back at Matt  and sa id  as she pulled out a note book from her suit jacket,  the book  likely stolen off one of the cops outside, “Vic is a twenty-year-old returning vacationer, clear background, just coming off a two month stay in the Caribbean, first thing he did when returning was wreck his motorcycle and then kill himself in a hospital emergency room. Twenty miles across town I have two other victims, similar circumstances, no clues. That’s three deaths with in four minutes of each other. The doctors that looked them over described all similar ta le s, unresponsive victim until they were to have blood drawn in which they responded by panicking and killing themselves. I need to know why.” She shut the notebook and turned her gaze on the two men before her. 

Matt frowned and looked down at the victim again, his gaze shift ed  as Victor lean ed  over him, “How long until we get the blood back from analysis?” Victor held his hand out to Avery  for the notebook,  who slapped it into his  palm.  Cringing slightly Victor pulled it close and then passed it to Matt who was quick to open it again looking over the detailed scribblings inside.

“‘Bout, twenty-four hours, sooner if there isn’t any back up in the lab,” Marsh responded as he moved to tip the victims head to the side to show Matt the fatal wound. Matt frowned harsher at the wound, a sloppy hit, but lacking hesitation which most people who attempt such a violent suicide have. He used the notebook to lightly tap his chin as he shifted his weight to look over the body, taking in the discoloration around the mouth and na ils something that normally set in due to lack of body care. 

He spoke, “Can you flip him over? I need to see his lower back.”

Marsh raised an eyebrow but nodded and called over to two of his lackies to help assist in flipping the body. Once the body was set on its stomach, Matt snapped his fingers holding his hand out to one of the lab techs for some gloves which he was given quickly. He shoved the notebook into the inside pocket of his suit jacket and then pulled the gloves onto his hands. Once gloved and crouched closer, Matt pushed up the man’s shirt and poked around his lower spine looking for the telltale signs of a needle point. It doesn’t take him long to find it, the skin brightly discolored, a deep  yellow and green just above the victim's waist line.

He cursed and dropped the shirt and stood suddenly. His eyes moved from the victim to Avery, she stood with pursed lips trying to read his mind. Instead of addressing her, Matt t hen t urned his head to Victor.

The once again they seemed to share a silent conversation one that Victor did not seem to like the end of as he moved forward and crouched down to look at the victim too. The group stood in silence while Victor examined the victim. He moved to push up the others shirt, after he grabbed some gloves from a lab tech that stood close. It did not take long for him to  stand with a disgruntled look on his face, not pleased with what he found on the victim’s lower back.

He then followed Matt’s example and let out a loud curse, “What the fuck. He is in prison! What is this?”

Matt shrugged his shoulders and looked at the other with a worried look, “I ’ m not sure, but this has to be him, all the same qualities and the smell is similar. Victim falls into his category.”

Avery held a hand out and said, “Whoa, hold on what are you two talking about?” She glared at the both, her eyes moved from one face to another almost as if she could not decide who to glare at totally for answers.

Matt sighed lowly and pulled off his gloves quickly holding them out to a close lab tech to grab. Once his hands were glove free, he pulled out the notebook that Avery gave him, “Back in the early 2000s there were a string of suicides, none of the victims had anything in common aside from the fact that they all killed themselves once a medical professional attempted to draw blood. Twenty-three people ended up taking their lives b efore the cause of the killings were revealed. They all were infected with a drug called Blister, a street drug that was used to block pain and sold off for a new high. Everyone was infected by the same dealer, Hendrick Ryan Junior.”

Avery nodded her head gravely remembering the case and slowly connecting what the other said to the current cases, “Blister didn’t cause these extreme circumstances, none of the blood or the victims reacted li ke these ones did.”

Matt nodded in agreement and continued, “You’re right, not in these cases but when we stormed his lab and arrested him, we found his previous notes on testing on earlier people, all of them seem to have reacted like this.”

Marsh spoke up as he stood up moving closer to the others, they all had moved together slowly as Matt had spoken, “I remember this, there were three vials found on scene, right?” He looked at the others and Matt nodded back, “but only two made it into evidence, the third was written off as being busted  during  transportation.”

Matt crossed his arms over his chest and the others turned to look at the body, “Yeah, but we had always had our suspicions about what really happened to the vial.”

Avery let out a breath and then turned back to Matt eyes narrowed and worry was clear there, “You’re saying that someone, on the force, took the vial and now have copied it an d  is using it on unsuspecting victims?”

Matt’s face looked grave as he met Avery’s eyes, “That’s exactly what I am saying.”

“There is a copycat out there,” Marsh breathed out , a nervousness entering his stance .

“And he is a part of the Police force,” Victor continued eyes hardened by the fact , disgust clear on his face .

“And we have no idea who it could be.” Matt finished.

They all paused and then turned to look at the body that lay at their feet. 


End file.
